Well, it's that sad time of year for those of us who look
after tropical ponds in the far flung northern latitudes. The
light levels are steadily dropping and all the aquatics are starting
to feel sorry for themselves.

The first plants to be removed were the Nelumbos. They
stopped flowering about six weeks ago after a very impressive
season where both plants produced around 15 flowers each.

With the light levels dropping the Nelumbos started
to show signs of mildew and we knew it was time to remove them.
We just have them labelled as Nelumbo cultivars as we
are not sure which varieties they are. All we do for storing
them over the winter is take them from the pond and leave them
under a bench in one of our temperate houses, which has a minimum
temperature of 10° C (50° F). There they sit drying out
until we repot them in the spring.

< Nelumbos on their way to storage

Next to come out are the Nymphaeas. We had eight cultivars
this year and they have all more or less stopped flowering. We
take the large pots out the pond, prune off the leaves, remove
the tubers, and repot them in small 8 inch (20 cm) plastic pots
or baskets. They are then stored in a tropical glasshouse 16-20°
C (61-68° F) water temperature. In the past we have tried
dry storing them in peat but we seem to have better results this
way. When the Nymphaeas are repotted into the large pots containing
plenty of fertiliser in the spring and placed in the warmer water
of the display pond 30° C (86° F), they burst into growth.

Nymphaea 'Jack
Wood'

N. 'St. Louis Gold'

N. lotus

N. 'Pamela'

My pride and joy, the Victorias, are struggling on although
there is a marked decrease in growth. They should last until
late November. This has been a strange year for them. They have
had much smaller leaves but many more of them. This could be
due to one or both of the following factors:

Above, the Victorias in 2007
At right, the Victorias in 2008

1. The Weather.

We have had so much rain this year and therefore very low
sunlight hours, e.g. the total sunlight hours for June, July
and August 2008 was 359, compared to last year which was 419,
about average.

2. The Fertiliser.

I ran out of my usual granular fertiliser and decided to buy
some with a really high nitrogen content in the form of ureic
acid, thinking naively that the more nitrogen the bigger the
leaves -- not thinking the more nitrogen the more leaves, which
could as easily have happened.

There is another factor which is the variability which is
inherent in any cultivar. What do you think? I must add that
I cut all flower buds off until late June as I always do.

So now we have about four months when the pond looks a bit
uninspiring, mainly inhabited by Eichhornia and Pistia.
How do other gardens brighten their ponds up at this time of
year?